It’s May 22, 2025, and we’re back with your daily funding rundown, where the capital’s flowing, who’s cutting the checks, and which startups are stepping into the spotlight. From federated AI and longevity biotech to concrete decarbonization and crypto identity, […]
The post Top Startup and Tech Funding News – May 22, 2025 first appeared on Tech Startups.
Apple is in a tough spot. While the company is painfully behind the competition when it comes to getting a solid handle on AI development, it seems to be speeding up the timeline to release its first AI-powered smart glasses. That’s… quite a gamble.
more…
By late 2021, major updates for Windows' built-in Notepad text editor had been so rare for so long that a gentle redesign and a handful of new settings were rated as a major update. New updates have become much more common since then, but like the rest of Windows, recent additions have been overwhelmingly weighted in the direction of generative AI.
In November, Microsoft began testing an update that allowed users to rewrite or summarize text in Notepad using generative AI. Another preview update today takes it one step further, allowing you to write AI-generated text from scratch with basic instructions (the feature is called Write, to differentiate it from the earlier Rewrite).
Like Rewrite and Summarize, Write requires users to be signed into a Microsoft Account, because using it requires you to use your monthly allotment of Microsoft's AI credits. Per this support page, users without a paid Microsoft 365 subscription get 15 credits per month. Subscribers with Personal and Family subscriptions get 60 credits per month instead.
In recent written testimony to a US House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees the military, the senior official responsible for purchasing launches for national security missions blistered one of the country's two primary rocket providers.
The remarks from Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, concerned United Launch Alliance and its long-delayed development of the large Vulcan rocket.
"The ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year," Purdy said in written testimony during a May 14 hearing before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. This portion of his testimony did not come up during the hearing, and it has not been reported publicly to date.
© United Launch Alliance
As YouTube prepares to air an exclusive NFL opening week game for free on September 5th, it’s hiring former Disney exec Justin Connolly. He’d most recently been running the streaming services and linear media networks, and will take over as YouTube’s new global head of media and sports, as first reported by Bloomberg, and confirmed by YouTube spokesperson Andrea Faville.
After spending more than 20 years at Disney and ESPN, he’ll be managing YouTube’s relationship with the media companies that distribute content on YouTube TV, as well as leading its live sports coverage. Connolly left Disney last week, just months before the launch of its standalone ESPN streaming service this fall.
Other streaming companies have also increased their focus on sports recently, with Amazon preparing to broadcast NBA games and Inside the NBA next season, Apple’s close relationship with MLB and MLS, and Netflix (something).
YouTube has become a growing force in live sports, with its live TV streaming service amassing more than 8 million subscribers and adding the NFL Sunday Ticket package in 2023. The platform will also. Earlier this year, YouTube revealed that it has become more popular on TVs than phones.
Tech company CEOs aren’t just making their companies AI-first: this week, they’re using AI avatars to replace themselves in earnings calls.
Buy now, pay later company Klarna featured the AI version of CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski in an 83-second about its Q1 2025 results, as reported by TechCrunch. The video’s description says that his “AI avatar” is presenting the results, and the AI avatar kicks off the video by saying that “it’s me, or rather, my AI avatar.”
Klarna has already been vocal about how it uses AI in its business, with Siemiatkowski telling CNBC this month that the company shrunk its workforce in part as a result of its AI investments. This also isn’t even the first time the company has used an AI version of Siemiatkowski to share earnings.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan also deployed an AI version of himself for the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call on Wednesday. “Today, I’m using our custom avatars for Zoom Clips with AI Companion to share my part of the earnings report,” Yuan’s avatar said in a video. “I’m proud to be among the first-ever CEOs to use an avatar in an earnings call.” In the top right corner of the video, you can see a message that says “created with Zoom AI Companion.”
The human Yuan showed up for the live Q&A portion of the call, though. “I truly love my AI-generated avatar,” he said while responding to the first question. “I think we are going to continue using that. I can tell you – I like that experience a lot.” Perhaps not surprising from the guy who wants “digital twins” to attend meetings on your behalf.
In a pretty barebones press release accompanied by a couple of pictures and detailed specs, Ricoh surprise announced that its long-awaited GR IV camera will launch this fall. The GR IV will adhere closely to the design of the GR III from 2018, and it will continue to use an autofocusing 28mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens and only a rear LCD for composing photos and videos, with no electronic or optical viewfinder available.
The GR IV’s exterior looks very similar to the GR III / GR IIIx, with an oval-shaped shutter button, on / off switch and mode dial up top, and a smattering of rear controls to the right of its LCD. Its buttons look redesigned, removing the spinning dial from around its four-way directional pad. And its adjustment thumb wheel, labeled “ADJ,” looks like it may be a fully turning dial instead of just a back-and-forth toggle that moves left or right. (I may be wishcasting that last part, because I think the thumb toggle on the GR III is annoying and fiddly.)
What’s known for certain based on its spec list is that the GR IV retains the built-in ND filter of the GR III, but it slightly ups the resolution of its large APS-C sensor from 24 megapixels to 26.
It will also have a higher ISO range that reaches 204,800 at its maximum setting, and five-axis stabilization instead of three-axis stabilization. The GR IV’s lens may be the same focal length and maximum aperture as previous generations, but it’s a new seven-element design in a new arrangement utilizing an additional aspherical element that should yield better corrections. The upcoming camera will also have face and eye-detection for its autofocus tracking, and 53GB of usable built-in storage. Onboard storage is great, and it’s much more than the GR III’s 2GB, but the GR IV is also downsizing from full-size SD cards to microSD.
While there isn’t a price yet, Ricoh has confirmed the GR IV is expected to release in the autumn of 2025, with a variant featuring a Highlight Diffusion Filter (HDF) to come “after winter 2025.” The announcement also details that the GR III is scheduled to be discontinued in July, while the GR IIIx continues “for the time being.”
The Ricoh GR cameras have carved out a niche among street photographers who value their super compact size and fairly affordable prices compared to a Fujifilm X100 or Leica Q. As cool and fun as I thought the just-announced Fujifilm X Half might be, the GR IV has instantly become my most anticipated camera of 2025.
Earlier this month, Nintendo received a lot of negative attention for an end-user license agreement (EULA) update granting the company the claimed right to render Switch consoles "permanently unusable in whole or in part" for violations such as suspected hacking or piracy. As it turns out, though, Nintendo isn't the only console manufacturer that threatens to remotely brick systems in response to rule violations. And attorneys tell Ars Technica that they're probably well within their legal rights to do so.
Sony's System Software License Agreement on the PS5, for instance, contains the following paragraph of "remedies" it can take for "violations" such as use of modified hardware or pirated software (emphasis added).
If SIE Inc determines that you have violated this Agreement's terms, SIE Inc may itself or may procure the taking of any action to protect its interests such as disabling access to or use of some or all System Software, disabling use of this PS5 system online or offline, termination of your access to PlayStation Network, denial of any warranty, repair or other services provided for your PS5 system, implementation of automatic or mandatory updates or devices intended to discontinue unauthorized use, or reliance on any other remedial efforts as reasonably necessary to prevent the use of modified or unpermitted use of System Software.
The same exact clause appears in the PlayStation 4 EULA as well. The PlayStation 3 EULA was missing the "disabling use... online or offline" clause, but it does still warn that Sony can take steps to "discontinue unauthorized use" or "prevent the use of a modified PS3 system, or any pirated material or equipment."
© Getty Images
Valve has been building up to this for months, first in preview, then beta, and now finally in a full stable release: a new version of SteamOS that brings brand new features to the Steam Deck and supports third-party handhelds like Lenovo’s Legion Go and Asus’s ROG Ally series.
SteamOS 3.7.8 is the first stable release to add official support for the Lenovo Legion Go S, and the first to offer an official “recovery” image that lets you install SteamOS on other AMD handhelds like the ROG Ally and original Legion Go, as Valve promised us in January of this year.
Until now, those who wanted to try SteamOS on those Windows handhelds could shoehorn the Steam Deck’s original recovery image onto their device, or opt for a similar experience like Bazzite. But now, Valve explicitly provides instructions for getting that image working on a Legion Go or ROG Ally, even as it warns that “support for all devices that is not officially ‘Powered by SteamOS’ is not final.”
But even if you don’t care about rival handhelds, SteamOS 3.7 has a lot of improvements for the Steam Deck. I’ve been asking Valve to let me use my Bluetooth earbuds’ microphone since launch, and it’s finally happening in desktop mode (sadly not gaming mode yet) thanks to HFP/HSP profiles. You can turn on your Steam Deck LCD from across the room with a Bluetooth controller, a feature previously exclusive to the OLED model, which comes in handy when you’re docked to a TV.
Speaking of leaving it docked, you can now set a Battery Charge Limit to 80 percent for longevity’s sake if your handheld is always plugged in, you can frame-limit variable refresh rate displays, and control the P-state frequency of certain AMD CPUs.
It’s all underpinned by new versions of Arch Linux, new Mesa graphics drivers, a much newer version of the Plasma desktop mode, and more. Here’s the full SteamOS 3.7.8 changelog.
And, an updated SteamOS FAQ seems to suggest that Valve is ready to expand SteamOS beyond Lenovo and the Steam Deck. “We’re currently working with select partners on officially licensed Powered by SteamOS devices. Please reach out to us at [email protected] for more information about licensing SteamOS for your device,“ one answer reads.
But the industry is still waiting for Valve’s other shoe(s) to drop. Rumors are still heating up that we’re close to the launch of Valve’s wireless VR headset “Deckard,” and that it might be pointing the way towards a SteamOS-powered living room console too. Valve has been moving slow and steady, but it seems like a master plan for Steam Machines could finally be coming into focus.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially dropped its case against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The FTC filed an order to dismiss its complaint on Thursday, just days after it lost an appeal for a preliminary injunction to prevent Microsoft from finalizing its acquisition.
“The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case,“ says the FTC in its filing. The filing brings an end to the FTC’s fight to try and block Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal, nearly two years after it originally sought a temporary restraining order and injunction from a US federal district court.
Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C. We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement. https://t.co/nnmUI76q0l pic.twitter.com/KgLxhZppx3
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) May 22, 2025
Microsoft won its FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard in July 2023, and the deal was completed several months later, in October, nearly two years after the acquisition was first announced. The FTC had appealed the ruling nearly two years ago, but an appeals court panel affirmed the denial of an injunction earlier this month.
“Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, DC,” says Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith. “We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement.”
Apple is moving full steam ahead with plans to release its long-rumored smart glasses by the end of 2026. It’s the company’s latest move to broaden its hardware lineup and build out its AI ecosystem. According to a new report from […]
The post Apple to launch smart glasses in 2026 as part of AI push, drops plans for camera-equipped smartwatch first appeared on Tech Startups.
